There is only one appropriate response to Vin Diesel. Vote for Theater Hopper at Top Web Comics to find out what it is.

While exhibiting at Emerald City Comicon and subsequently feeling like I have been off-planet for the last four days, I admit to a certain amount of surprise to have learned that Fast & Furious earned nearly $73 million in a record-shattering debut.

It is the largest box office for an April opening ever, besting 2003’s Anger Management ($42.2 million) and it is also the biggest opening of the year. Bigger than than “the more-buzzed-about Monsters vs. Aliens ($59.3 million) and Watchmen ($55.2 million).”

Most significantly, it’s the “best opening ever for stars Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, and Jordana Brewster, as well as for director Justin Lin.” Good for them. They all could have used a hit and it looks like their movie delivered. We should all be so lucky.

Moving on to more me-centric topics, of course I wanted to provide you with a recap of Emerald City Comicon!

First, everything you’ve read about the show is true. It is impeccably run by Jim Demonakos and his team of volunteers. Never before have I been treated so well at a con of this size. The staff was friendly and would bend over backwards to help ANYONE. And being on Artist Alley where you are typically ignored, that is significant.

The guy at the table next to me was complaining of a mild headache. One of the show staff overheard him and brought him Excedrin in no time flat. Any other show and he would have been on his own.

Secondly, the fans were WONDERFUL. I’m lucky in that my readers are pretty much awesome where ever I go. But a gold star for Seattle whose patrons seemed more than willing to explore Artist Alley and try new things. I sold more books in Seattle than probably any other convention I’ve been to. Seattle loves to read!

Thirdly, sincere thanks to Indigo Kelleigh who creates The Adventures of Ellie Connelly. Indigo and I split a room at the Hyatt and he did me A WORLD of favors when he both picked me up from and dropped me off at the Seattle-Tacoma airport. Not only that, but the guy is super nice and ridiculously talented. We had great conversations about the nature of our comics and our artistic pursuits. Indigo was also my unofficial tour guide – having grown up in Seattle as a kid. Be sure to check out the rest of his work at his art blog, Lunar Bistro.

One thing I wanted to mention was my participation on the Business of Webcomics panel on Sunday. As you recall, I was on-stage with Robert Khoo from Penny Arcade, Danielle Corsetto from Girls With Slingshots and Jeph Jacques from Questionable Content.

Was I nervous about it? You bet. Was I intimidated? As much as one can be when Khoo showed up wearing a suit! Was I visibly shaking in my chair? A little. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat.

I had a great time talking on the panel. And while the questions were maybe a little business-light, it felt good to answer questions from people just getting started with their comics, exposing a little bit of our methods and outlining what they can expect if they want to profit from their comics.

I think web comics are a little different now than they were when I started Theater Hopper almost 7 years ago. While there was certainly a lot of competition back then, there is A LOT of competition right now. So it’s very difficult for a new comic to rise up and make a name for itself.

Conversely, I think people look at the success of larger comics and see more and more creators being able to make a living off their comics and ask themselves “Why isn’t it happening for me?” There was a little bit of impatience in tone of the questions we were receiving. A few people point out “there’s a reason you’re ‘up there’ and we’re ‘down here’.”

I fully admitted to dumb luck having a lot to do with my placement on the panel, but I knew where they were coming from.

It sounds simplistic to suggest (and counter-intuitive to the purpose of the panel), but we were forced to suggest that anyone getting into webcomics exclusively to make money was probably doing it for the wrong reasons. Fans see right through it! You have to love what you do, work to improve you craft and be a little bit shameless when it comes to networking. Once those things line up, the audience will come. Maintain your trust and the audience will grow. Word-of-mouth works to some extent, but you have to produce quality work consistently and strive to put it in front of new audiences. Opportunities will spring up from those efforts.

If you’d like to see some photos from the panel, be sure to check out Jonah Gregory’s Flickr page (starting with this classic shot of Jonah, Jeph Jacques and myself). Jonah was also the moderator of the panel and the creator of his own webcomic, Here There Be Robots. I thought he did an excellent job of running the show.

I want to reiterate what a wonderful time I had at Emerald City Comicon and I also want to tip my hat to the webcomic creators I had a chance to meet over the weekend. Kris Straub, Danielle Corsetto, Holly from TopatoCo, Jeph Jacques, Dave Kellett, Chris Yates, Malki!, Sam Logan, Meredith Gran and Alina Pete – it was a pleasure to meet you all.

If I left your name off that list, no disrespect. There was just a lot going on and I was meeting a lot of people at once! 🙂

I think it goes without saying that I would love to attend Emerald City Comicon again in the future. With any luck, I’ll be able to get a cheap flight back to Seattle next year so I can go. Seattle is a wonderful city. I felt comfortable there immediately. I can’t wait to go back.

Thanks again to the show organizers and all of the fans that made this experience so wonderful!